One quarters of Ireland still without water

Officials said that water restrictions in Dublin will be enforced between 8 pm-6 am

This is the worst water crisis since the Big Freeze of 2010

DUBLIN, Ireland - Hundreds of thousands across Dublin and parts of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow overnight were faced with water problems after the Irish Water was forced to restrict supply on Monday.

Irish Water said that they had been hit with the worst water crisis since the Big Freeze of 2010 - which forced them to impose water restrictions.

Now, officials have said that the water restrictions have impacted over 1.2 million people across the State or one-quarter of the population - who have no supply of water.

Further, 33,500 more are cut off in other counties.

On Tuesday, officials said that in the Greater Dublin Area, water restrictions will be enforced between 8 pm and 6 am, so that “people will have water at breakfast time.”

According to an update by Irish Water, problems are likely to continue for a number of days and possibly weeks.

It said, “Irish Water recognizes that many of our water customers continue to face severe impacts from water interruption or restrictions, where customers only have water at certain times. These are likely to continue for a number of days.”

In a statement, Head of Customer Operations with Irish Water, Eamon Gallen, apologized for the restrictions and confirmed they could be in place "for weeks.”

Gallen added, “They could remain in place for days or weeks so businesses can run during the day. We will also be prioritizing hospitals and water levels are being monitored on an hourly basis. We don't want to be issuing restrictions and the decision is not taken lightly but we need to let reservoirs refill."

Gallen also apologized to some people, who had no water in the Dublin region overnight and said, "People at the end of the network will be hit harder, geography does catch some people."

Local reports noted that Wexford county was the worst affected and that 17,500 people in the county suffered due to no supply.

Officials were quoted as saying that the trunk mains serving Wexford town was damaged by a falling tree and repairs crews had to “wade through more than three feet of snow into a wooded area to make repairs.”

About 2,000 customers were impacted in Cork, 12,250 in Tipperary and 2,000 in Limerick.

Meanwhile, across Cork, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Meath, Waterford and Westmeath another 48,000 people were impacted due to restricted supply.

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